"The happy-go-lucky provincial festival has developed into a cultural attraction."

"We show life in all of its facets."

"HOF means HOME OF FILMS."

“We don’t need stars, we make them.”

Heinz Badewitz

“Ah HOF – Memories of a festival run by special people in a special town – and a time when the purity and joy of cinema was the thing … That time is each festival.”

Bill BennettDirector

“The Hof IFF is at times mediocre, the Hof IFF is at times brillant, but the Hof IFF is always like a church service – you just have to attend. And I love the parson who’s not too proud to repeat things of importance time and again and to network film people of possible importance. Hence I was thrice introduced to Werner Herzog and thrice to Wim Wenders.”

Detlev BuckDirector and actor

“I remember extasy and exhaustion and the invariable flu after. I remember my first own premieres in hof, my big surprise at standing up there in front and seeing people applaud and laugh wildly, like when they were watching MÄNNER (MEN).”

Doris DörrieDirector

“They’d all always raved about HOF. The atmosphere, Heinz, the football match, the sausages … Of course about the screenings, too. It was an experience of the more agreeable kind: beer and not champagne, bratwurst and not caviar, affability and not pompousness. Now I know that all the wonderful stories and all the raving about Hof is nothing but the truth.”

Andreas DresenDirector

“For filmmakers, HOF never feels like work. Here you don’t do business, here you make friends.”

Veit HelmerDirector

“I still find it hard to believe that a remote little town in the north-east of Bavaria has come to play such an important part in my life, and that in that place I would go through a kind of fear and/or hope I never experienced in Berlin or New York. But fate has its own weird and wonderful ways, especially when it takes on the name Heinz Badewitz.”

Florian Henckel von DonnersmarckDirector

“HOF is and always will be a special place for me. I think there are such places – and people – in everybody’s life: when you finally come across them, you know they’ve been waiting for you. The town of Hof is such a place for me.”

Hendrick HölzemannDirector

“Unpretentious, direct, honest, down-to-earth, youthful, good-humoured, serious about film, argumentative, searching … these are HOF’s special charms. Of course, it’s a dreadful place for a vegetarian – but that’s no problem for me: I love sausages!”

Mike LeighDirector

“Hof is the ultimate platform for the German film. For German filmmakers, there’s no better place to attract the film world’s attention. HOF is wonderfully unglamourous. HOF is intimate. HOF is irreplaceable for the German film.”

Caroline LinkDirector

“I appreciate the incredible willingness to be there for films and filmmakers, to make a home for them. Even if you don’t constantly think about it, you take the support of HOF for granted, just like you never doubt your own family will support you. I think this is a sensation I share with many other filmmakers. We grew up with HOF and with Heinz.”

Jeanine MeerapfelDirector

“What I remember most strongly is the warm reception and the interesting questions I was asked. I have no doubt that HOF is a great place to launch a film in Germany and the atmosphere of the town and the festival is one that stays with you forever.”

Eran RiklisDirector

“I know no other festival where distances are that short, where news of a good film spread that fast, where the audience’s elation is that palpable – and no other that I connect that closely with the festival director himself.”

Hans-Christian SchmidDirector

“Without Heinz I would not have been able to understand what kind of films I was actually making. And without HOF I would not have been ready for the big wide world outside – and its cinemas, of course, where your movie has to show its true colours.”

Tom TykwerDirector

“It’s a warm feeling, thinking about the Hof Film Festival. It’s a wonderful feeling to be allowed to be there. It’s like a school outing to a paradise full of films, so close together it’s always hard to leave. It’s family. It’s intense. It’s inspiring. It’s tradition. A small town that turns into a centre of the film world every autumn. A magic charm.”

Neele Leana VollmarDirector

“In 1985, my so-called ‘first practice film’ at the Munich HFF (NACHTFAHRER) premiered here, and to this day I’m not sure whether Heinz selected it just because back then I was still quite good at playing football and the match on Saturday was nearly more important than anything else. So what – it was a fantastic event, just like in all the years to come, whether with or without a film of my own. In any case, I saw the light of day in Hof and hope I’ll see that light a long while yet.”